Bronx Shelter Deaths End in Postpartum Psychosis Insanity Finding
Case summary
On November 26, 2022, Fleming, then 22, fatally stabbed her sons Daishawn (3) and Octavius Canada (11 months) at a family shelter in the Bronx and placed them in a bathtub. She was indicted on murder charges in 2024. Because the mental-health evaluations commissioned by both sides agreed she was psychotic at the time, Bronx Supreme Court Justice Audrey Stone ruled in late August 2026 that she was 'not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect.' Fleming, now 26, remains in custody while a further evaluation determines whether she poses a danger and what level of psychiatric confinement is required; she was due back in court on September 18, 2026. The ruling came days before the verdict in the Lindsay Clancy trial and was widely reported as a parallel test of how courts treat postpartum psychosis.
Mental-health context
Psychiatrists retained by both the prosecution and the defense concluded Fleming was suffering from postpartum psychosis. The prosecution's expert, Dr. Eric Goldsmith, testified she was hallucinating and convinced the world was ending; defense psychiatrists reported she believed a spirit had entered her body and that her actions were necessary to 'cleanse' her children.
Status / outcome
Found not responsible by reason of mental disease or defect (August 2026); commitment proceedings ongoing
Sources
- https://abc7ny.com/post/judge-finds-mother-dimone-fleming-not-responsible-deaths-sons-bronx-shelter-due-postpartum-psychosis/19751843/
- https://abc13.com/story/doctors-say-dimone-fleming-confessed-killing-sons-bronx-new-york-city-shelter-was-state-psychosis/19754434/
- https://www.bronxda.nyc.gov/downloads/pdf/pr/2024/52-2024%20dimone-fleming-indicted-murder-two-children-bronx.pdf
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